DICE talks PC requirements

With the upcoming release of both Battlefield 1943 and Battlefield Bad Company 2 coming from DICE fairly close together for the PC platform, the biggest question that has been on the mind of many is how much PC power will be necessary in order to run these two titles which are powered by the company’s new Frostbite engine? These titles represent the first titles that use DICE's new engine on the PC platform.

While the game will run on computers that are still using Windows XP, only DirectX 9 will, of course, be supported. In order to enjoy both Battlefield 1943 and Battlefield Bad Company 2 with DirectX 10 or 11 support you will need to be running Windows Vista or Windows 7 and have a graphics card that supports DirectX 10 or 11. None of this was really a surprise.

As for Windows XP systems, DICE is recommending at least a Core2Duo processor running at 2GHz with 2GB of memory and a GeForce 7800 or ATI X1900 with 256MB of RAM. You will need 15GB of hard drive space for the digital download version of Bad Company 2, or 10GB of hard drive space if your opt for the retail DVD version of the game. As for Battlefield 1943, which will be available only via digital download, you will need 4GB of hard drive space.

If you are running Windows Vista or Windows 7, DICE suggests at least a Quadcore processor running with 2GB of memory and a GeForce GTX260 with 512MB of RAM. You will need 15GB of hard drive space for the digital download version of Bad Company 2, or 10GB of hard drive space if your opt for the retail DVD version of the game. As for Battlefield 1943, which will be available only via digital download, you will need 4GB of hard drive space.

While DICE is saying that these are the minimum specs that will be necessary, strangely enough, no mention was made of what resolution you will be able to run these titles at and still achieve an acceptable frame rate. Our sources suggest that it is likely that with high resolution displays it will be necessary to have a more powerful graphics card with more memory in order to make the game really playable with the majority of the eye candy turned on. We suspect that in the case of those running Windows Vista or Windows 7, you will also likely benefit from a faster Quadcore processor and more memory, as well.